Incalescence
by roysenal
Summary: All Jaime had wanted that night was a breath of fresh air.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.**

**Author's Note: A gift for dikemon for this year's yj-exchange over on tumblr! Merry Christmas! In your scenarios/prompts you put the words****_ 'cute'_**** and****_ 'heart-warming' _****and I just went ****_'damn.'_**** I tried my best, hope you enjoy it. **

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Jaime couldn't sleep, his bunk in the Hall wasn't exactly home.

The scarab nagged him to go back to sleep and quit being a weak, spineless sissy, but Jaime ignored it.

His bare feet felt numb against the cold, stainless steel floors of the Hall of Justice. He needed to remain there with the rest of the team; they couldn't risk going home anymore. He was there for his own perfection and as much as Jaime wanted to see his mother and father and little Milargo he couldn't bear to look at them after learning what his future could hold. He was in the hall for his own protection, and for the protection of everyone else - and he understood that, accepted that, even wanted that.

But,_ maldito_, he needed to get out. He needed to get some air. He was suffocating from the stale, dry air that tasted rusty and ancient like the artifacts the Hall hosted.

He tried his best to ignore the scarab; he didn't need that right now.

As Jaime made his way to the roof entrance he thought of how he was going to even get up there, security was tight to get both inside and out. He didn't have to worry long, it was already unlocked.

He slowly went through the hatch. The air was cold and fresh and wonderful; light snow swirled through the air. Jaime could feel his lungs expanding, he felt light.

The scarab scolded him for going out on the snow without proper footwear but that wasn't his concern at the moment. No, he concern had shifted from getting fresh air to the person sitting on the edge of the roof.

_"Cassie?_" Jaime called.

She spun her head around, startled. "Who- oh, hey, Jaime."

Cassie was wearing her pajamas too. She had sweat pants and a take top, she should have been freezing but her skin looked so warm. She didn't have her headband on or her star earrings in. Her hair was messy and a pleasant dandruff of snow spotted her bright, blonde hair. She had a cup of hot coco in her hands.

"You couldn't sleep either?" Cassie motioned him to sit down next to her. He obliged. "Nightmares too I assume?" Jaime nodded; Cassie bit her lip.

It was silent. She was tapping her fingers on the side of her mug.

"How're you holding up?" Cassie asks out of nowhere, tilting her head to the side. "You were gone for so long…"

Jaime swallowed hard; he was really getting cold now. "I came up here, didn't I?" He wanted to get off the subject. He looked her up and down. "How can you not be freezing?"

Cassie shrugged her shoulders and brought one knee up to her chest, "I'm a demigod, I don't get cold, really." She took a sip of her coco and glanced at him. "Oh, I'm sorry, would you like some?"

Jaime smiled and took the mug from her, it filled his insides with such warmth in more ways than he could ever have possibly imagined.

"You know, this is my first snow." Cassie told him as she swung her other leg back and forth of the building.

_"De ninguna manera._" Jaime said after finishing his sip, then shook his head quickly, "No way."

"Mmmhmm," Cassie said, her smile giving Jaime that same warm feeling the coco did. "My mother is an archaeologist, she was always either in Africa or the Middle East, sometimes Italy, Greece… And it doesn't really snow there, at least when we were there it didn't."

Jaime went to hand her the mug again. "No, you need it more than I do."

Jaime was thankful for that. "Didn't it snow back in February?"

Cassie sighed wistfully. "It doesn't snow on Themyscira either."

"So you've _never_ built a snowman?_ Never _been in a snowball fight?"

"Well, I've been in plenty of fights." Cassie winked at him and his whole body shook with a warm, chilling sensation. "Blue, you must be colder than ice." Cassie scoot closer to him and put her arms around him, hugging him tight and rubbing her hands up and down his arms. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Jaime set the mug down and brought his hands up so that they were on hers.

"Tomorrow we're going to go outside and we're going to build a snowman and we'll go sledding and ice skating and-" And Jaime went on and on, listing all the things they would do together. Jaime wanted to make the most of his time. Cassie was holding him and he felt safe and warm and _better_.

They talked for hours and hours, Jaime told Cassie stories of his little sister and his best friend and El Paso, and Cassie told Jaime stories of her mother's archaeological digs and of Greek mythology and how messed up it was.

They talked as the sky shifted from dark gray to light gray and the snow began to fall steadily and gently as the wind began to cease as it got closer to day break. They must have been like that for more than an hour

They had gone from Cassie having her arms around Jaime, to Jaime having his arms around her. Jaime had scooted over so his back was against a wall and Cassie was cuddled into him \and then she slips downs as she slips into sleep. And she's now asleep with her head on his lamp and he's stroking her hair.

Eventually he has to take her back inside, carefully scooping her up and carrying her to the lounge because with all the security he can't get into her room. He sets her in one of the chairs and drapes a blanket on her. She's still smiling, and he's smiling too as he drifts into sleep in the chair across from her.

He couldn't wait till tomorrow, or rather, later that day – it had always been 'later that day' – to do all the things he had talked about and all the things he had promised while they still could.

He didn't need a blanket; she had filled him with this warm, extravagant, zeal that made him feel okay and that the team was going to be okay and that they would okay and that everything was going to be okay.

She gave him hope, and he was going to repair her in any way that he possibly could. Starting with snow, ending with…

He didn't want to think about the end. To him, at that very moment, watching her sleep with her smile, he couldn't fathom an end at all.

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**I haven't really written anything in a while, and this felt stressful because as I was writing it I kept thinking: "WHAT IF THEY HATE IT?" but it's okay they loved it yay!**

**Merry Christmas!**

_**~ roysenal**_


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